Prosecutors Richard Cenar and Joe Magats had asked Reyna to sentence Agrawal to death, saying the killings had been premeditated and Agrawal, who has an advanced degree in mathematics, should have known better.

But Viola Rouse, Agrawal's assistant public defender, argued that he had no prior convictions, that he had raised three children and that he should be given a life term.

According to testimony in the trial, Agrawal had taken a .22-caliber handgun and 28 bullets hidden in a down jacket he wore zipped to the neck into a deposition hearing at Kappil's law office.

Agrawal and his brother, who once had been very close, had become bitter rivals over $500,000 they had pooled.

In the years before the murders, Shree Agrawal had withdrawn money from the account and placed it into his own accounts, and Hari Agrawal had sued his brother and was awarded the money in court, according to testimony.

Hari Agrawal had his brother locked out of his home and was trying to collect a $70,000 judgment against him when Shree Agrawal declared bankruptcy, according to testimony. The deposition hearing in Kappil's office was going to determine whether Shree Agrawal really was bankrupt.

During the lengthy deposition in the conference room, the lawyers, a court reporter, a video photographer and the brothers took a break. When the break ended, Shree Agrawal appeared in the doorway with the gun. He ordered everyone to stand against the wall.

"I often tried to picture myself in my husband's shoes when he was confronted with a drawn gun," wrote Kappil's wife, Valsa, in a statement prosecutors read in court. "How helpless he must have felt, the terror of losing his life to an evil man's bullet."

Shree Agrawal shot Kappil as he prayed and he looked Hari Agrawal in the eyes for several moments, then fatally shot him, according to testimony. Others in the room testified that after the shootings, they rushed Agrawal and grabbed the gun.

Later, she testified, she saw her shoes still standing against the wall and realized for the first time that she had jumped out of them when she lunged for the gun.